No secret pactswith
Tories rattled as top peer Ashcroft predicts Labour will win General Election comfortably
GEORGE OSBORNE flatly ruled out an electoral deal with Nigel Farage yesterday, even as he vowed never to ‘belittle’ UKIP voters.
The Chancellor sought to silence talk by worried Tory MPs of an electoral deal with the UKIP leader by insisting the only real choice at next year’s General Election was between David Cameron and Ed Miliband.
Speaking to Tory activists in London, Mr Osborne declared: ‘There will not be a pact. For a Conservative Government at the next election, you have to vote Conservative.’ But the stern warning was coupled with a clear bid to reach out to UKIP voters and win them back to the Conservatives.
Mr Osborne stressed how he ‘respected’ UKIP voters and Mr Farage even if he did not agree with the party’s leader.
He said: ‘The modern Conservative party will never dismiss or belittle the views of the people we aspire to represent.
‘We should show the highest respect for those who go out and cast their vote – and respect too for those who cast their vote for another party, and that includes those who voted for UKIP on Thursday.’ But Mr Osborne insisted that Mr Farage did not have ‘the answers to the country’s future’.
Tory party bosses are hoping their key pledge of an in/out referendum on the EU after the next election will be decisive in pulling back disaffected Conservative voters. But the Chancellor seemed concerned yesterday that voters were yet to be convinced by the promise. He said: ‘We should stop complaining that the public don’t believe us on our referendum pledge and instead work harder to make sure they do.’
Mr Osborne also braced his party for more bad news tonight when the European election results are unveiled. The Chancellor, who put the Tories’ economic competence at the centre of its re-election bid, said the Government would now ‘listen, respond and deliver’ in the wake of the voters’ verdict.
But he was challenged by Tory activist John Strafford to say how he would listen to UKIP voters opposed to controversial coalition policies such as high-speed rail, gay marriage or Mr Osborne’s own ‘barmy’ Help to Buy mortgage assistance scheme.
And, despite Mr Osborne taunting Labour over a ‘miserable’ result in last week’s local elections, a new survey by former Tory vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft last night claimed Labour was still on course for a clear General Election win.
The survey of key marginal seats put Labour at 41 per cent – way ahead of the Tories on 29.
The poll found there was an average 6.5 per cent swing to Labour – enough to oust up to 83 Tory MPs and secure what some observers said could be a Labour majority of 70.
UKIP was on 18 per cent with the Lib Dems scoring just eight per cent, based on 1,000 voters in each of the areas.
Last night Labour election supremo Douglas Alexander said: ‘Lord Ashcroft’s poll confirms that we are making real progress in seats where we need to do well and that Labour can win next year’s General Election.’